17 August 2011

One may be a supporter of the
Euro or a fervent critic but one aspect that is mostly overlooked in the
present debate about the future of the Euro is the fact that no
consideration is given to the wishes of the citizens in the countries that
are affected by the turmoil in the financial markets.

The politicians in most member states of the Euro-zone (and the technocrats
that do their bidding) have introduced the Euro without bothering to ask
for the agreement of their electorates. Now they are reaping the results
of their authoritarian measure and try to get out of the problem by
forcing even more authoritarian measures on their citizens.

3 August 2011

Many countries have a minimum hurdle that parties have to exceed before they are allocated seats in the national or local parliaments. Now there is a new initiative in the City of Zurich that calls for the lowering of the threshold to 2 per cent making it easier for smaller parties to gain a seat in the town council. Without taking a view on the merits of this initiative we are convinced that all constitutional changes should be subject to a vote in a referendum and that it should not be left to the established political parties and politicians to decide what changes are adopted.